Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

Cities across the US are ramping up security around houses of worship after the devastating attacks on Israel by Gaza militants that started Saturday.

While many authorities say there have been no credible threats, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued “public safety concern” bulletins to state and local law enforcement agencies over the weekend, a law enforcement official said.

So far, the agencies said there was no “current specific intelligence indicating a threat to the United States,” the official said.

But a rabbi in Salt Lake City said he was forced to stop services Sunday and evacuate the synagogue after the congregation received a bomb threat.

Video posted on the Facebook page of Congregation Kol Ami shows Rabbi Sam Spector interrupting a cantor and asking everyone to “calmly please exit the building” and go to a nearby park. He then asks someone if 911 has been called.

“About halfway through our service, our staff received an email saying that there was a bomb in our building and that bombs had been placed in other Jewish centers around Utah and that it’d go off in a few hours and that we all deserved to die,” Spector told CNN affiliate KSL.

Salt Lake City police said officers searched three local Jewish institutions but did not find anything suspicious, the affiliate reported.

“Officers will continue to have increased patrols. The SLCPD will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies regarding the origin and credibility of the threats received,” police said, according to KSL.

Spector, who leads the largest Jewish congregation in Utah, said many worshipers were scared and upset even before the bomb threat.

Many congregants have direct connections to Israel, and some were still unable to find relatives in the conflict zone, the rabbi told CNN. They exchanged hugs and shed tears before they were forced to evacuate the synagogue.

“People are really having a difficult time,” Spector said.

The FBI’s Salt Lake City office “is aware of several bomb threats to synagogues in Utah,” the agency said, according to KSL.

“While we have no information to indicate a credible or specific threat, we are working with our local and state law enforcement partners as needed,” the FBI said. “We urge the public to remain vigilant, and report any and all suspicious activity and/or individuals to law enforcement immediately.”

The heightened vigilance in the US comes after Gaza militants launched a surprise attack on Israel Saturday morning, firing thousands of rockets and entering Israel by land, sea and air.

Israel then launched airstrikes on Gaza while its forces clashed on the ground with Hamas fighters.

More than 900 people were killed and thousands more were injured in Israel, officials said. And in Gaza, more than 680 Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel – New York City – has not faced any specific or credible threats against the Jewish community in the aftermath of the attack in Israel, Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday.

But he has “directed the NYPD to deploy additional resources to Jewish communities and houses of worship citywide to ensure that our communities have the resources they need to make sure everyone feels safe,” Adams said Monday.

Some of the enhanced protections will be covert: “There is also the intel and invisible action that we’re going to put in place,” the mayor said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s working with Israel’s acting consul general in New York and the US Embassy in Jerusalem to help bring back New Yorkers currently in Israel.

As a precaution, the governor also “directed the New York State Police to work with local law enforcement to ensure Jewish community spaces are safe,” Hochul said.

New Orleans police are boosting security around the Jewish community and its institutions, interim Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in a statement.

The city’s Jewish community has about 12,000 members, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.

“The New Orleans Police Department is aware of the situation in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, I have deployed Directed Patrols to ensure the safety of our Jewish institutions and communities,” the police chief said in a statement.

“NOPD District Captains will continue to work closely with Synagogue and community leaders in the interest of keeping our communities safe,” Kirkpatrick said.

New Jersey’s attorney general also announced increased law enforcement patrols across the state and asked residents to be extra vigilant.

“While there is no credible threat to safety, law enforcement will be increasing patrols in sensitive areas – particularly houses of worship for both the Jewish and Islamic faiths – and taking other steps out of an abundance of caution,” Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement Saturday.

The Chicago Police Department says it is paying close attention to synagogues and mosques in light of the war in Israel and Gaza, according to a department statement.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced enhanced security at synagogues and “other potential venues.”

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, will have “increased visibility” near places of worship, though “there are currently no credible threats in the District,” spokesperson Sean Hickman said Saturday.

Across the country, the Los Angeles Police Department said it will conduct extra patrols in Jewish and Muslim communities.

“The Los Angeles region has the second-largest Jewish population outside of Israel and many families are anxiously awaiting developments as they unfold,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Saturday. “My thoughts are with those families.”

The horrors unfolding in the Middle East are resonating across the US, said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“The police presence in front of preschools is what it looks like now. Squad cars in front of synagogues,” Greenblatt told CNN News Central on Monday. “That’s what’s happening because after sparks in the Middle East, they light fires here America and in Europe.”

Greenblatt said he has spoken with people across the US over the past few days, and “many are looking for missing family members, for kidnapped relatives, or those who are dead.”

“And yet they’re also scared because … anti-Semitic incidents were already at a high point,” he said.

President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday and said Washington “unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.”

“I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel,” the president said.

CNN
 — 

Will Ferrell is back on campus.

The “Old School” actor made an appearance at the University of Southern California (USC) on Saturday, where he was seen in videos posted to social media behind a DJ set up at what appears to be a Sigma Alpha Mu (ΣΑΜ) fraternity party.

Clad in a backward USC baseball cap and Trojan jacket, the actor is seen in one video clapping to the beat of “Eye of the Tiger” while he’s surrounded by students enjoying the party, which took place during the university’s family weekend.

Ferrell’s son Magnus, who he shares with his wife Viveca Paulin, is an aspiring musician who is a student at USC.

The actor himself studied Sports Information at USC before graduating in 1990, and has been an active member of the university’s alumni community.

In 2017, Ferrell and Paulin endowed the first full scholarship for USC’s women’s soccer team, and that same year the actor received an honorary doctorate when he delivered the commencement address to graduates.

During his address, Ferrell joked his “achievements include running naked through the city of Montrose in ‘Old School,’” referring to the comedy-classic he starred in as Frank “the Tank” Ricard in 2003.

“Old School” stars Ferrell, Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Piven and Ellen Pompeo, and follows Ferrell, Wilson and Vaughn’s characters as they attempt to relive their college years by starting a fraternity on a local campus.

Saturday’s surprise DJ set isn’t the first time that Ferrell has participated in an event connected to Magnus.

In 2022, the “Talladega Nights” star crashed Magnus’s first live performance in San Diego during a Cancer for College charity event when he appeared on stage to provide “more cowbell,” channeling his iconic 2000 “SNL” skit.

CNN
 — 

House Republicans remain badly divided over their two choices for speaker in the aftermath of the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the speakership – and are bracing for the possibility that neither House Majority Leader Steve Scalise nor House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan can get the 217 votes needed to be elected speaker.

The deep uncertainty has heightened talk in GOP circles that a dark-horse candidate could emerge, as McCarthy himself refused on Monday to rule out a return to the speakership if Scalise or Jordan fail to win the votes to assume the most powerful position in Congress.

“I’m going to allow the conference to do their work,” McCarthy said repeatedly at a Monday news conference, refusing to publicly endorse Scalise or Jordan for the job.

The comments – and the 11th-hour talk of a McCarthy comeback, which is still seen as a long-shot – underscore the deep turmoil that exists this week as Republicans struggle to coalesce behind a speaker following last week’s unprecedented events when eight Republicans joined with Democrats to remove McCarthy from the speakership. Moreover, Republicans are in active talks to raise the threshold needed for the number of votes to win the conference’s nomination for the speakership – a key issue that could hobble Jordan’s or Scalise’s bid and could end with a new candidate altogether.

The internal talks come as emotions remain raw after McCarthy was ousted following a right-wing revolt after the California Republican relied on Democrats to help advance a short-term spending bill to keep the government open. On Monday, McCarthy had choice words for the eight GOP members, saying they “love the cameras” and were interested in “pettiness” – a sentiment echoed by many of his allies within the conference.

“Many will refuse to support who the eight ‘traitors’ coalesce around because they don’t want the 96% to give into the 4%,” one House GOP member told CNN. “Many refuse to reward the 4%.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, a freshman New York Republican, said that McCarthy “is the right person to lead,” and questioned whether anyone else can secure enough votes to win the speakership.

“Who can? Does anybody have the votes?” he asked as he walked into McCarthy’s office.

Some of the Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy are making clear they won’t back down as the California Republican leaves the door open to returning to the speakership, further underscoring the uncertainty inside the conference.

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told CNN, “We’re aren’t relenting.” Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina sent CNN a poll showing the majority of Americans and even Republicans support McCarthy’s ouster. And Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida compared McCarthy’s comments at his Monday news conference to a “death rattle.” He also tweeted “math is real” and “time to move forward.”

Mace and Gaetz have both already thrown their support behind Jordan.

“The most popular thing Congress has done since Kevin McCarthy became speaker was vacate him,” Mace told CNN.

Some centrist Republicans are now calling to restore McCarthy as speaker after the attacks on Israel, expressing concern the House remains paralyzed without a speaker and worried they won’t be able to coalesce around a new candidate quickly.

When asked if it’s feasible for McCarthy to return, another GOP lawmaker and McCarthy ally said it’s a “possibility” but said a lot will depend on how Monday’s House GOP conference meeting shakes out. Others speculated McCarthy would have to cut a deal with Democrats in order to prevail, which he refused to do last week.

If no one can get 217 votes to be elected speaker, it remains to be seen whether another candidate will emerge – and several Republicans are suggesting that remains a distinct possibility. Among the names floated in addition to McCarthy: Reps. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, interim House Speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and House Rules Chairman Tom Cole, also of Oklahoma.

The GOP conference is meeting Monday evening for the first time since last week. Then, there will be a candidate forum on Tuesday and an internal leadership election on Wednesday.

What could change the dynamics in the conference: Whether House Republicans adopt new rules to achieve the needed votes to become speaker.

Indeed, House Republicans are expected to debate Monday evening whether to make it harder for candidates to win their conference’s nomination for speaker – in an effort to avoid a protracted floor fight like the one that occurred after McCarthy won the gavel after 15 ballots in January.

The idea is to make sure that the internal squabbling happens out of public view and behind closed doors, so the candidate can emerge from the conference with enough votes to be elected speaker on the first ballot.

The proposal is being pushed by Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania – two members who represent opposite wings of the conference – and they are suggesting Republicans raise the threshold to win the nomination from a simple majority of the conference, which is 111 members, to a majority of the House – currently 217 with vacancies. Last week, 94 members sent a letter asking for that change to be formalized in the rules.

The strategy would prevent the conference from moving forward to the floor without enough consensus to actually elect a speaker. The thinking behind these tactics is that they could avoid the optics of round after round of televised failed House floor votes.

That means the candidate could only afford to lose four GOP votes before winning the conference nomination. But if neither Scalise nor Jordan can get the 217 votes internally, some say that’s when another candidate could emerge.

Allies to Jordan and Scalise are divided over a proposal to the change, which would have major implications for who would be able to prevail. Jordan and many of his supporters are backing the proposal.

“I think it’s real important that we go to the floor with 217 votes, 218 votes,” Jordan told CNN.

But Scalise allies, who believe the Louisiana Republican can secure a majority of the conference but acknowledge he won’t get 217 votes on the first ballot, are against the move.

Said Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas: “We don’t need to be going about changing the rules in the middle of an election.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN
 — 

Large parts of the world, including China and the Midwest US, are on track to become too hot for humans to handle as accelerating global temperatures expose billions to heat and humidity so extreme their bodies will no longer be able to cope, according to a new study.

Researchers used temperature and humidity data along with climate models to analyze humanity’s exposure to potentially lethal heat as the world warms, looking at a range of temperature increases from 1.5 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

They found that above 2 degrees Celsius of warming, a significant portion of the world’s population will be vulnerable to “moist heat stress” with devastating consequences for human health, according to the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The world has already warmed around 1.2 degrees Celsius.

“Moist heat stress is a particularly challenging problem, because it affects the human body directly, and causes morbidity and mortality,” said Matthew Huber, co-author of the study and a professor of Earth’s atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue University.

When levels of heat and humidity are high, sweat evaporates much more slowly than usual meaning its cooling effect is lost and the body can become unable to regulate its temperature. This can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which can cause heart attacks and organ failure. The old, the very young and those with pre-existing health conditions are most vulnerable to heat illness.

Temperatures that surpass human tolerance have been breached only a few times in human history, and for a few hours at a time in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, according to the report.

But as temperatures continue to rise, many more will be exposed and for much longer periods, the study found.

While countries have committed to limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, with the aim of 1.5 degrees Celsius, they are way off track. Even if global climate pledges are met — which the world is not currently on course to do — temperatures are expected to rise between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius, according to a recent UN report.

Above 2 degrees of warming, 2.2 billion people who live in Pakistan and the Indus River Valley in India, 1 billion people in China and 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will experience many hours of heat and humidity a year that exceed human tolerance levels.

People in these regions will be even more vulnerable as many lack access to air conditioning or other ways to cool down, the report noted.

At 3 degrees — which the study authors say is the most likely level of warming by 2100 if no action is taken — there is a sharp increase in people exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity. “It’s really incredibly disturbing,” Huber told CNN.

Humid heat waves will affect swaths of the world not used to such extreme conditions.

The Midwest US will become a “moist heat stress hotspot” at 3 degrees of warming, according to the report. The Midwest is susceptible to this kind of heat stress in part because its climate walks the line between dry and humid, Huber explained, allowing the region’s heat to push into the danger zone on very humid days.

Another factor that makes the region vulnerable is its agriculture and the phenomenon called “corn sweat,” Huber said.

“The plants that we eat are sweating through evapotranspiration, and that may be adding to the humidity above what would normally be there,” he said.

So-called “hot hours” — times where heat and humidity are especially life-threatening — will be concentrated in the Missouri and Mississippi River valleys but also elsewhere in US including the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Atlantic seaboard, according to the study.

At 4 degrees of warming, the study’s worst-case scenario, researchers found that 1.5 billion people around the world would face a month of moist heat stress each year, and roughly 2.7 billion people will experience at least a week of these extreme conditions.

Parts of Yemen could experience heat and humidity that exceeds human tolerance for more than 300 days a year, making it virtually uninhabitable.

“Around the world, official strategies for adapting to the weather focus on temperature only,” Qinqin Kong of Purdue University and a study co-author, said in a statement. “But this research shows that humid heat is going to be a much bigger threat than dry heat.”

Keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius by cutting planet heating pollution will sharply reduce global exposure to life-threatening heat and humidity, the report found.

“Every tenth of a degree or anything like that afterwards plays a role, and we want to reduce warming as fast as we can,” Daniel Vecellio, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at George Mason University, told CNN. “If we get to these emissions reductions faster, here’s all the people we can save, here’s all the lifestyles that don’t have to be changed.”

Kim Cobb, climate scientist at Brown University who was not involved with the study but was a lead author on the most recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, said the study’s conclusions are “compelling” but not surprising. “Extreme heat is already responsible for countless deaths worldwide every year,” Cobb told CNN.

“It’s important to underscore, as this study does, that heat is not an equal opportunity killer. It disproportionately kills people in lower income communities, often communities of color. This is as true here in the US as it is around the globe.”

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are weighing tying legislation for additional military support for Israel with military assistance for Ukraine, setting up a showdown with congressional Republicans opposed to helping Ukraine amid the tumult in the speaker-less chamber.

The looming fight over tying military aid for Israel and Ukraine together is the latest in a series of complicated questions a new speaker will have to navigate as the narrow Republican majority grapples with its future.

Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry is limited to help Israel in the midst of war — meaning the House can’t pass any legislation until a new speaker is chosen. 

The White House has yet to formalize a request for additional aid to Israel — it is expediting weapons already purchased first — but briefers on a call with lawmakers Sunday night underscored that there would be an eventual need as Israel burns through munitions.

In a Senate briefing Sunday evening, Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed and others proposed packaging Ukraine aid and Israel aid together with the expectation that conversation will likely intensify ahead of the Senate’s return next week, one person familiar with the matter told CNN. 

While congressional aides and US officials make clear that Israel is not in danger of running out of equipment in the near term like Ukraine is, the thinking is that tying funding for both countries together could help get Ukraine aid across the finish line as support has dwindled among House Republicans. 

There is also some discussion of including funding for border security funding and for Taiwan in an eventual package, as there is growing uncertainty over how future supplemental packages would fare in the GOP-controlled House. 

“To me that would be a good package,” said House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who has been a vocal supporter for continuing to support Ukraine. 

It’s an open question whether hardliners in the House — who have been vehemently opposed to giving more to Ukraine — would back that effort. It’s also not clear whether a future speaker —knowing the bitter divide over the Ukraine issue — would be willing to move a joint package on the House floor. 

Read more here.

CNN
 — 

Misinformation has run rampant on Elon Musk’s social media platform X in the 48 hours since Hamas militants’ surprise attack on Israel, with users sharing false and misleading claims about the conflict and Musk himself pointing users to an account known for spreading misinformation.

Multiple users over the weekend shared a fake White House news release falsely claiming the US was sending billions of dollars in new aid to Israel in response. Accounts on X with hundreds of thousands of followers in total quickly spread the doctored White House press release after it appeared online on Saturday. Social media influencer Jackson Hinkle, who was among those shared the fake release, claimed it was a slap in the face to Ukraine, which has been pleading with Washington for more money to defend itself from Russia.

Musk himself added to the information chaos on Sunday by recommending X users follow the Israel-Hamas conflict by following an account known for spreading misinformation, including a fake report earlier this year of an explosion at the Pentagon.

Musk and Hinkle later deleted their posts. Musk later posted: “As always, please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like.”

Elsewhere on X (formerly known as Twitter), an account impersonating the Jerusalem Post shared a bogus report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been hospitalized. (The account was later suspended.)

CNN has requested comment from Musk and X on the posts related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

A slew of mischaracterized videos and other posts went viral on the platform over the weekend.

One video that is purported to show Israel generals after being captured by Hamas fighter was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video however actually shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.

Another post viewed more than 500,000 times on X purported to show an airplane getting shot down with the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack. The video is in fact a clip from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.

Community notes allow users on X to fact-check false posts on the platform. While notes were appended to both of these false posts, they often come after a false post has been viewed thousands – or in some cases millions – of times.

X has relied more heavily on community notes to moderate content since Musk laid off thousands of the company’s employees, including many responsible for detecting and addressing false claims, following his takeover of the platform last year.

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, one of the government’s main cyber defense agencies, on Monday took to X to urge people not to spread unverified information. “[T]he rumor mill is overflowing,” the directorate wrote in Hebrew. The Anti-Defamation League also raised concerns in a statement Saturday about false and antisemitic claims being spread on the platform, including posts by a verified user falsely claiming that Israel helped to facilitate 9-11 on US soil, which have been viewed thousands of times.

The viral nature of the misinformation has alarmed experts on information operations, offering a fresh example of social platforms’ struggle to deal with a flood of falsehoods during a major geopolitical event.

“In times of war, social media becomes a propaganda battlefield; there is always an element of disinformation and exaggeration,” said Emerson Brooking, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “Today, X is the main platform where this online battle plays out.”

Brooking said changes to X policy under Musk’s ownership have incentivized propagandists and scam artists. Any user can now purchase a “verification” checkmark on X by signing up for the platform’s $8 per month subscription program, and their posts are then boosted by the platform’s algorithm and eligible for monetization.

“Paid verification means that you cannot distinguish between a vetted journalist and a scam artist,” Brooking told CNN. “The for-profit ‘views’ system incentivizes accounts to impersonate news outlets and to post as frequently as possible, drawing from whatever source they can or just making things up.”

Twitter has long played a pivotal role in information sharing during conflicts, from the Arab Spring to the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine, and during previous violence in Israel and Gaza.

Viral misinformation has always existed on the platform, but it has become particularly pronounced under Musk’s stewardship, experts say.

“In the past decade, every conflict has inevitably bred a digital “fog of war,” where both sides, and their supporters, try to use social platforms to spin the narrative in their favor,” Joe Galvin, a journalist who has specialized in open-source intelligence for more than a decade, told CNN Monday.

“The volume and reach of misinformation today, though, far exceeds what we saw in the early social media era conflicts, and is exacerbated by platforms like X, which has taken the guardrails off and allows the most egregious types of disinformation to run rampant,” Galvin said.

He said other platforms that have little or no guardrails including the social media messaging app Telegram are also hotbeds of misinformation, but X is unique given Musk’s behavior.

“Even the owner of X takes part in the chaos, promoting accounts that are known to spread falsehoods to his 150 million followers. The fact is that malicious users, state-backed and otherwise, have become better at spreading falsehoods, with more sophisticated networks being built and better technology – including AI – being used. The platforms are in a perpetual state of catch-up.”

CNN
 — 

Here’s a look at the Nobel Prize, an international award given yearly for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and peace.

October 2-9, 2023 – The Nobel Prizes are announced. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

October 3-10, 2022 – The Nobel Prizes are announced. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to jailed Belarusian advocate Ales Bialiatski and human rights groups from Russia and Ukraine – Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties.

Nobel prize recipients are called laureates.

The Nobel Committee keeps the names of laureate nominees confidential for 50 years before they are released to the public.

The award consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash prize (10 million Swedish kroner (SEK) – approximately $900,000 as of October 2022).

The main inscription on one side of the Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature Nobel Prize medals is the same: “Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes,” loosely translated, “And they who bettered life on earth by new found mastery.” Word for word translation, “inventions enhance life which is beautified through art.”

The Peace medal has the inscription “Pro pace et fraternitate gentium,” translated, “For the peace and brotherhood of men.”

The Economics medal has no inscription.

Nobel prizes are announced in advance but awarded annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

The Nobel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics are customarily awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Nobel Peace Prize is customarily awarded at its own ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Periodically, no prize has been awarded. This happened most recently in 1972.

The number of winners is limited to three per category.

A person must be alive to be nominated. If they die during the consideration period, their name will be removed. Only if a person is announced as a winner and dies prior to the ceremony, will a posthumous award be given.

The Nobel Foundation protects the common interests of the prize-awarding institutions: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

1866 – Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel invents dynamite. He later builds companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries around the world.

December 10, 1896 – Nobel dies in Italy at the age of 63. His will endows awards in five categories: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace.

June 29, 1900 – The Nobel Foundation is established. It is the central body of the Nobel organization responsible for awarding the Nobel Prizes.

1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.

1939-1943 – No Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded.

1968 – A sixth award, Economics, is added by the Bank of Sweden (Sveriges Riksbank) in the memory of Alfred Nobel.

2016 – The class of 376 Peace Prize candidates is the largest ever.

May 4, 2018 – The Nobel Foundation announces the decision to postpone the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature due to a sexual misconduct scandal within the Swedish Academy. The Foundation awards the prize on October 10, 2019.

An unconscious woman taken hostage by Gaza militants attacking an Israeli music festival was seen being paraded around the coastal enclave in new video authenticated and geolocated by CNN.

CNN has confirmed the identity of the woman as Shani Louk, a German-Israeli dual national. CNN has reached out to her family for comment but has not yet received a response.

Her cousin confirmed to The Washington Post that Louk attended the Nova Festival, an all night dance party celebrating the Israeli harvest festival Sukkot near Re’im, Israel.

Louk is seen motionless in the video. 

One gunman, carrying a rocket propelled grenade, has his leg draped over her waist; the other holds a clump of her dreadlocks. “Allahu Akbar,” they cheer – “God is Great,” in Arabic.

Some of the crowd gathered around the truck, just outside of the Al-Shalfoh bakery and grocery store, join in the cheers. One man spits on Louk’s head as the car drives off.

CNN does not know Louk’s whereabouts, or condition, at this time. CNN is not airing the video because it is graphic and disturbing.

“We recognized her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks,” Louk’s cousin told The Washington Post.

A German foreign ministry source told CNN that, “The Federal Foreign Office and the German embassy in Tel Aviv are in close contact with the Israeli authorities in order to clarify whether and to what extent German citizens are affected.”

In video obtained by German news outlet Bild, Louk’s mother Ricarda spoke directly about the abduction.

CNN
 — 

Heavy rain will once again lash parts of the Northeast on Saturday, bringing a flood threat to New York City for the second consecutive weekend.

A cold front followed by remnants of former tropical storm Philippe are set to drench areas from northern New Jersey to as far north as Maine. These areas have a slight risk for excessive rainfall from Saturday morning through early Sunday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

“In addition to the heavy rainfall, gusty winds are expected for eastern Maine along the storm’s track, as well as high surf along the New England coast,” the prediction center said Friday.

And although forecasters have said this weekend’s storms won’t bring as much rain as last week’s record-setting rainfall that wreaked havoc on New York City’s roads and subway system, some flood watches are in effect Saturday in those same hard-hit areas.

Parts of southeastern New York – including much of New York City – southern Connecticut and northeastern New Jersey are under a flood watch from 2 a.m. Saturday through the evening, according to the National Weather Service.

Much of Maine also will be under a flood watch from Saturday afternoon into Sunday.

Generally 1 to 3 inches of rain are possible Saturday into Sunday from the New York City area and upstate New York to New England. Higher amounts, up to 5 inches, could fall where the heaviest rain sets up, most likely in Maine.

Maine and portions of northern New England are forecast to see the most significant impacts from Philippe’s remnants.

As of Friday morning, the remnants of post-tropical cyclone Philippe were expected to move over parts of the Atlantic Canada and New England this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.

And this would be the third weekend in a row the Northeast gets walloped by heavy rainfall. Ophelia soaked the Northeast the weekend of September 23, followed by last weekend’s walls of rain that paralyzed air travel, flooded basements and triggered water rescues in New York City.

As the storm moves in Saturday, New York City officials are warning residents to be prepared for 1.5 to 2.5 of rain citywide, with the potential for 3 to 4 inches in flood-prone areas.

To that end, a deputy mayor urged basement residents to remove their belongings and move to higher ground by Friday night.

“Since this is happening overnight, you might be asleep so you should be preparing now,” First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright told reporters Friday.

Wright also implored New Yorkers to plan ahead as grounds still were saturated from last week’s storm, warning that potentially significant flooding and travel disruptions in typical flood prone areas are possible.

“In this time of man-made climate crisis, flash floods and other climate events are a part of our reality,” Wright said. “This is in fact the new normal.”

The city has more than 100 water rescue teams on standby, and crews are working to clear catch basins so they can absorb more water, city officials said in a news conference Friday.

Experts and scientists have said human-induced climate change is a major driver of extreme weather events, which are likely to occur more frequently and severely.

Washington
CNN
 — 

Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Thursday that murder and violent crime in New York have hit record highs.

Trump made the claim on his social media platform while attacking New York Attorney General Letitia James over her civil fraud lawsuit against him, which led to the trial that began on Monday. After denouncing James, the case and the judge presiding over the trial, Trump wrote, “All of this while MURDERS & VIOLENT CRIME HIT UNIMAGINABLE RECORDS! This is sooo bad for New York.”

Facts First: Trump’s crime claim isn’t close to true. Murder and violent crime aren’t anywhere near record highs in New York, either the state or the city.

Trump has made false claims about supposed crime “records” a regular part of his playbook for attacking prosecutors who are pursuing cases against him.

When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was leading an investigation of Trump, which resulted in a criminal indictment in March, Trump falsely claimed that violent crime in Manhattan was at a record high. After Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis secured an August indictment against Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, he falsely claimed that murder and violent crime in Atlanta had reached unprecedented levels.

Let’s take a look at the numbers that disprove his latest claim.

The state of New York recorded 791 murders in 2022, according to official figures published on the state website. That wasn’t close to a record high. New York recorded 2,605 murders in 1990, when it had a smaller population, according to past official figures provided to CNN by crime analyst and consultant Jeff Asher, co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics.

In addition to 1990, New York state recorded more than 2,000 murders in 11 other years from 1979 (the year Asher’s data begins) through 1994. And New York had more murders than it did in 2022 every year from 2000 through 2008.

Trump could have correctly said that the state’s 2022 murder figure was much worse than its murder figures from just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic; the state recorded 568 murders in 2019. (Murder spiked around the country in 2020.) But the 2022 figure was nothing close to the unimaginable record he claimed – and it was down from both 2020 and 2021.

The state’s 2022 number of violent crimes, 84,714, was its highest since 2005, but it too was nowhere near a record. The state recorded more than 200,000 violent crimes every year from 1989 through 1992. It also recorded more than 100,000 violent crimes in each of the other years from 1979 through 2000, the data provided by Asher shows.

Since Trump made the claim about “record” crime in New York while lambasting the state attorney general, it seems likely he was talking about crime in New York state as a whole. Because he didn’t specify, though, we’ll briefly note that his claim is still wrong if he was talking about New York City alone.

New York City recorded 438 murders in 2022, and murder in the city is down about 11% so far in 2023 compared to the same point in 2022. By contrast, the city recorded 2,262 murders in 1990. The city recorded 649 murders in 2001, the last year of the mayoralty of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, whose record on crime Trump has repeatedly praised.

The city’s 2022 and 2023-to-date figures for the violent crimes of rape, robbery and felony assault also do not even approach record levels.

It’s worth taking a step back from the numbers to note the folly of trying to blame or credit any single state attorney general for crime trends, positive or negative.

It is notoriously difficult to pinpoint the reasons that crime rises or falls at any given time – there is a long list of economic, social and political factors at play – and local prosecutors, not the attorney general, are responsible for prosecuting the vast majority of crimes.

In April, when Trump was attacking Bragg over crime in Manhattan, Asher said: “We have a tendency to want to blame one person, or credit one person, when in reality these are complex systems that rise and fall for often complex, random reasons that we don’t have the ability to explain – but it’s easier to say, ‘It was Joe Schmoe over there.’”